Review of Herle, A., & Philp, J. 2020 Recording kastom: Alfred Haddon’s journals from the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888 and 1898: Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp, in association with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2020. Pp. 360. A$60.00 paper.

Recording Kastom presents the transcribed journals of anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon, written during two visits to the Torres Strait region in the late nineteenth century. Haddon’s first trip was in 1888–89, when he arrived intending to conduct marine zoological research but after meeting and interacting with Islanders quickly transitioned to anthropology. His second visit in 1898 was as the leader of a multidisciplinary salvage-based anthropological research team. The editors’ goal in publishing his journals is to enhance understanding of the historical, social and political contexts of his writings, provide details of how he obtained his information, and make this information available to the people of the broader Torres Strait region.